Mobile Panel: Mobile Payments
Sponsored By:
Soumen Ganguly - Moderator
Director, Altman Vilandrie & Company
Soumen is a Director with AV&Co. His key areas of expertise include product portfolio strategy and optimization, new product strategy, customer segmentation, business case development and marketing strategy.
Soumen’s experience includes leading major engagements for multiple US and European mobile and broadband operators, equipment manufacturers and investors. Recent client projects include strategy work related to converged communication products, mobile handsets, customer segmentation, product portfolio rationalization, emerging products innovation, push-to-talk and mobile payments.
Prior to joining AV&Co. in 2009, Soumen was a partner at Mercator Partners, a telecom focused strategy boutique. Soumen holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delhi, India.
Chris Hylen - Panelist
Vice President and General Manager of the Payment Solutions Division at Intuit
Chris Hylen is Vice President and General Manager of the Payment Solutions Division at Intuit. He leads the company’s development of innovative payment solutions such as GoPayment. Hylen has more than 20 years of small business payments experience, which includes leading Intuit’s multiple payments solutions spanning across desktop, online and mobile platforms.
Chris Hylen has focused the company’s energy and efforts to create mobile products for business owners to allow them to thrive in an ever shifting business climate. With the launch of their first mobile payment product, GoPayment, Intuit has provided their customers with the means to process payments wirelessly through any Internet enabled mobile phone and through select device applications. Chris sees tremendous opportunity for businesses and consumers to benefit from the true realization of mobile money where one only needs a mobile device to process and accept mobile payment.
Christina Dorobek - Panelist
VP of Sales, West Coast
Christina Dorobek is the leader of LevelUp’s West Coast local business initiative. Christina works closely with merchants to leverage mobile technology and game mechanics to create loyalty and engagement. With over 10 years of experience, Christina previously led the Center for Women & Enterprise in New England helping women start, run and grow their businesses. In her spare time she can be found drumming her face off in Rock Band, reading over the latest In-Style, and eating ice cream straight out of the carton.
Scott Todaro - Panelist
VP of Marketing, AisleBuyer
Scott Todaro brings 19 years of marketing expertise and 13 years of ecommerce, mobile, and retail experience to AisleBuyer as the Vice President of Marketing. Prior to joining AisleBuyer, Scott ran product strategy for ecommerce platform leaders, Demandware and ATG. At Demandware, Scott was the visionary behind Demandware’s mobile commerce offering. Scott served as the Vice President of Marketing for Sports Loyalty Systems after co-founding the business to build online loyalty programs for professional sports franchises. Scott has also held other marketing management positions at Meridian, Invention Machine, DCI and Sherwin Williams (retail division). Scott holds both a BBA and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.
President and CEO
In his role as CEO, Walt is responsible for setting the vision and strategy for the company. As an outwardly facing CEO and strategist, Walt has built in a world-class team of like-minded entrepreneurs and leadership around him at WHERE. Prior to joining WHERE in 2005, Walt played key roles at numerous consumer media companies including MapQuest (AOL), Dialpad (YHOO), Net2Phone (T), and GameSpot (CBS). His career began in Hong Kong with Dow Jones where he was a part of the international expansion for dial-up and broadcast news and information products.
As an engaging and recognized leader in the mobile landscape, Walt is a frequent speaker at nationally recognized events and conferences such as the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), CTIA (The Wireless Association), CES (Consumer Electronics Show), BIA Kelsey and numerous others. Walt serves on the leadership board of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s Mobility Cluster and is an advisor for a number of startups in Boston-area including the news publication, BostInnovation and mobile-app developer, EverTrue. Walt is active at Boston’s numerous universities and is a leader in helping young professionals get started in their careers. Most recently Walt was named a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 program and was also named a Massachusetts High Tech All Star.
Walt left San Francisco for his native home of Boston in 2005 where he and his family are outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy fishing, biking, hockey, and travel. He is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Pankaj Gulati - Panelist
CEO and Chairman, MoreMagic
Pankaj Gulati is the CEO and Chairman of MoreMagic. Prior to becoming the CEO and Chairman, Pankaj was the VP of Operations at MoreMagic where he was responsible for Product Management, Pre-sales, Customer Support, and Contracts. Previously, Pankaj was the Director of Wireless Intelligent Network Applications at Lucent Technologies, where he was a part of the management team that grew the business to $150M with over 50 customers worldwide in 3 years. With Lucent, Pankaj deployed Network Care and Customer Care solutions for Sprint PCS, AT&T, Alltel, US Cellular, Cingular, Telefonica, and Telecom Italia. Pankaj holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri and has completed the Executive Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Pankaj is a frequent speaker at the Babson College Executive Education Program.
